Big cheer for the holidays: Part i

I am in my first year of many as a school mum. So far it hasn’t been the baptism by fire that I thought it would be. Apart from having to cobble together a large number of outfits for fancy dress/themed days, for what feels like every other week, I have found the transition fairly ok! The only other thing that I have found a real challenge is the lack of slow mornings, lazy breakfasts and most importantly having my eldest around more. Ah how this Easter has been a well needed breath of fresh air!

We spent the Easter weekend with my parents which was a treat in itself but it was also the perfect balance of activity and relaxation (as much as three small children will allow!). Here are a few of my favourite photographs:

Not a bad spot for a picnic.

Tree top trail.

So special to watch as Nanna teaches the girls 'Guess Who?'

Fry up and pots of tea all round with the added bonus of my brother and his rather gorgeous little girl for company.

Strutting cousins!

The Norman's Shoot: Westgate Gardens, Canterbury

The weather wasn’t by any means the best of British spring time but I had a lovely morning with the Normans the other weekend. Mick and Rachel’s little girl Anna very recently had her very first birthday and one of the ways they chose to mark the occasion was to capture some special family memories. Anna was initially a little suspect of my camera but very quickly warmed up and broke out some stunning smiles. We spent some time in Westgate gardens and then had a lovely stroll over to Willows Secret Kitchen, a quirky little café tucked in the side streets of Canterbury (which I will definitely be frequenting again soon). I really hope you enjoy having a browse through some of my favourites....

These are a few of my favourite things

Smiling and laughing.  These truly are two of my favourite things. Smiling, as we all know, is so infectious but also I love how a reciprocated smile, even to a stranger, makes you feel you somehow know that person a bit better. I also adore a good laugh. Best of all when you have one of those rare occasions where you find something so funny that you laugh uncontrollably. For me this manifests itself in the rather unattractive form of my mouth being open abnormally wide while doing the silent laugh/shoulder shake and every now and then gasping for breath (with a strange seal like noise) while normally slumping to one side. But when you manage to regain a form of normality it feels like you have had a sort of rejuvenation tonic! 

To capture those precious moments of joy in a photograph is such a privilege....

* family photography * outdoor photography * newborn photography * Kent photography *

Doors to your memory

I turned 33 last week but if you were to judge my age by my memory for the little things you would probably put me somewhere between 75-80! Ok, so maybe that is a slight exaggeration but being someone who is always thinking 'what's next?' I think I simply forget to reflect and the oh so important things slip from my memory far too quickly. I therefore strive to help myself remember in various ways the little things about our family life that I think I won’t forgot but all too easily do. I thought I’d quickly put fingers to keys to show 3 simple things I do to help me remember in the amongst the busyness of life.

Jot down those memories

Everyone loved the television programme ‘Kids say the funniest things’ that aired in the late 90’s early 00’s and this book is my own version. I write down the cute things my 3 do and say, from when my eldest was 6 months old she used to basically make a noise that sounded like a duck that smoked 20 a day for about 3 months to the simple things like what their current favourite book is.

One of my favourite entries is when I had had a tough day with my two toddlers (at the time age 2&3) and went to the toilet for a quick break to find my eldest had drawn smiley faces on the bathroom floor with a biro. After calling her up to ask for an explanation she said ‘don’t worry mummy. If you scrub really hard they‘ll come off‘. Ha! (and I had completely forgotten about this until rereading it now!)

If you are a parent, or a grandparent, or have little people in your world, and you don't already, I implore you to keep a little note book just like this. It’ll be your best read in years to come. Also if you buy a beautiful note book and a pen to go with it you have your self the perfect gift idea for someone who is expecting!

The boxs of bits and pieces

I’m pretty sure everyone has their own version of this, either a shoe box under the bed, a pile in the top of your wardrobe, a well meaning bundle on the top of your fridge or a purpose bought box. I started by just putting all the bits and pieces that held memories in the top of a wardrobe; from ticket stubs to first family portrait they drew of us all looking like potatoes with arms and legs, from the mothers day card with the tea bag stuck in sent home from nursery to the first pair of shoes. 

I can be quite sentimental about the little things after having children ours quickly filled to over flowing. So I then went out and bought a box for each of the three kiddies and one for us as a family. Sorting out the memories into the new boxes took me so much longer than I’d allocated as I found myself reading every card, looking over every colouring, and before I knew it 15 minutes had turned into over an hour and I was no longer sitting by myself but my girls had joined me, one on either side, as we chatted through our family memories so far.  

And obviously taking a few pictures…..

As the watercolour so wonderfully explains photos help fill in the gaps of your memory. I love to take photos of the everydayness of family life as well as the highs of life (which sometimes are one and the same!). I love capturing those precious moments when the girls have built a den or make a tea shop or a pretending to be baby lambs (or cats) for the hundredth time in a week as much as I love to take photos of our family holiday or an annual family get together. Photos have a unique way of freezing time and therefore opening doors into our memory.

There is a photo in my lounge of my girls’ feet as they run along the beach. If this photo did not hang on my wall their squeals and giggles as they play chase with the waves would soon have vanished from my memory. You can never have enough doors into your memory! 

If you would like to capture some more family memories do have a look at the very reasonable packages I offer by simply clicking here or have a look through some of the family memories I have already helped captured here. 

* family memories * Canterbury, Kent * 

When the love began

In a time when to see a photo you had to take a whole film of pictures, manually rewind the film, open the camera (and hope you rewound it properly or you lost the whole lot!), take it to the nearest camera shop and then after a week only then could you see the final result….a Polaroid camera was a dream come true! (well for a child in the 80's it definitely was). It was as instant as you were going to get!

My beautiful Nanna with my older sister and I holding our Keypers (one of my favourite childhood toys!)

My Grandad had a Polaroid camera. It was beautiful. When visiting my grandparents as a kiddie my adoring Grandad would happily let me and my siblings snap away, and snap away we did. 

Even now in my thirties I can remember the pure joy as a child to hear it coming out the bottom, to hold the milky white image in my hands and to see it slowly develop before your eyes….magical!

Me wearing my Mum's wedding dress. My brother and I playing in the garden. My sister and I being read a story by my Nanna.  

My Grandad’s Polaroid camera is where my passion for photography began. The Polaroids I have are so much more than just images of a time gone by but are crammed with so many wonderful memories spent with my Nanna and Grandad. Although cameras have changed drastically over the last 30 years my childhood excitement for capturing a memory that you can keep for forever has not. 

Photo of my Grandad by me age 5(ish)

| passion for photography | family |

The Davis' Family Shoot: Canterbury, Kent

I met Sara in my first year at Uni (some 13 years ago) and Mike managed to whisk Sara off her feet in 2005. Being such close friends it has been an utter joy to share parenthood with Sara and Mike (both having our first child early 2011). Joel is their eldest and he is the best 4 year old drummer I have ever met and Millie who is 2 gets cheekier and more beautiful day by day. The day of our shoot we were going to head to Tankerton but the weather was a bit grizzly so we donned on the wellies and we headed to the woods to make the most of the last autumn leaves.....